1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for aggregating entities in a service delivery center environment for management via profiles.
2. Description of the Related Art
A service delivery center (SDC) is a work center that is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of network computing elements. Examples of service delivery centers include the International Business Machines™ Strategic Outsourcing Delivery Centers, which are service centers that provide technology services and solutions to customers in support of the customers' business strategies. A typical service delivery center may comprise thousands of servers, each of which has an identity in terms of hardware, operating systems, applications, etc. The identity of each server must be maintained and serviced for many different customers.
In current service delivery systems, an administrator may perform administrative actions on servers in the network. These administrative actions may be performed on a set of servers. To apply an action to a set of servers, the administrator creates a static server group, wherein servers may be added to the group. However, when the administrator adds or removes servers from a static server group, the administrator must manually add or remove each individual server on a machine-by-machine basis from the group. Such a serial process of adding or removing servers can be a significant time waste for the administrator, and the administrator has no reasonable way to improve productivity.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a mechanism that allows machines to be automatically grouped together and treated as one logical entity, such that a single administrative action by an administrator may be applied to multiple machines simultaneously.